The Rescue
by Glenandme
Summary: Will Adam kill Joe? Joe thinks he will. I do not own Bonanza or any of its characters. No copywrite infringement intended.


The Rescue

By Glenandme

"Adam's going to kill me." Joe omitted a tiny sob as he lay there cradling his left arm. It hurt so much, not like a scrape or a bee sting but scary hurt like he had really done it this time and his arm would never be the same again. Little Joe got carefully to his feet and watched as his horse galloped off down the fields. He made a half hearted attempt to follow but he knew he wouldn't catch it, he watched as it jumped a fence way in the distance and disappeared through the trees. Joe shivered, he even left his coat attached to the saddle horn. He looked down at the shattered fence pieces scattered in the grass.

"Adams going to kill me," he said again, his bottom lip beginning to tremble.

~o~

He remembered again how tired Adam had been. He didn't even take his gun belt off. He came in and sat heavily on the couch putting his feet up on the coffee table.

"You're not allowed to put your feet on the table, I'll tell pa." Joe had told him smugly.

"Don't start on me Joe," he said putting a hand to his face.

Joe saw a smeared blood stain on his right hand. It was the type of injury one gets when working with their hands out in all weathers.

Joe felt jealous. Adam did a days work, Pa talked to him about things. He was a man. Joe was 13 and was told to drink his milk, finish his homework, get his curls cut out.

Pa went away and left Adam in charge. Pa told Adam he was the man of the house and he expected him to run things as he would. Pa never spoke that way to Joe.

~o~

"You're not supposed to put your feet on the table, pa says," Jo repeated.

"Don't you have homework," Adam retorted. "Get to it."

"You can't tell me what to do, you're not Pa." Joe told him.

"Joe why do you want to go picking on Adam."

Hoss was always mumbling these days, people could hardly make out what he was saying half the time. He never looked you square in the eye either. He never spoke above a whisper and never lifted his head to look at anything above his shoes. Joe thought that if he was as big as Hoss at 16 he would have far more to say for himself.

"You keep out of it, you're always sucking up to Adam." Joe told him.

The homework remark really stung Joe. He was a kid leading a kids life.

Adam put his feet up on the table and nobody ever said nothing because he had branded about a hundred, thousand cows and fixed every fence from here to Carson city. Adam was perfect.

"Joe, go take your cantankerous butt upstairs and do your homework. And come down in a better humour or I'll box your ears." Adam told him, starting to loose his temper now.

"Make me," Joe sneered.

That was it. No more.

Adam got up suddenly and grabbed Joe by the scruff of the neck shaking him like a dog with a rat.

"Alright come on now," Hoss moved to intervene.

Joe reached his skinny arm back and picked up the poker. He brought it forward meaning to threaten Adam with it and make him release his hand but in the thick of it Hoss got in the way and somehow the poker connected with his eye. Hoss howled as both hands went to his face to cover it. Adam unceremoniously dropped Joe and went to remove Hoss's hands. Eventually the shock lessoned and Adam grimaced at the shiner Hoss was left with, the skin around the eye was swollen and puffy.

"I'm sorry Hoss, I'm sorry." Joe called to him, genuinely sorry he had hurt his brother, and a little afraid too.

Adam turned dark angry eyes on him.

"You get up to your room," he told him. "I'll follow you up there."

"No." Jo said backing away, he knew what that meant.

"I said, get up to your room." Adam bellowed at him.

~o~

Adam lunged towards him and Joe slipped out from under his arms. He grabbed his coat, threw the front door wide and ran for the barn. It probably wasn't the best place to run if one wished to avoid punishment but anyway, it couldn't be helped now. He threw a saddle on his horses back, all the while expecting Adam to come thundering in. He managed to ride out without Adams intervention and he rode like the wind, all the time looking back to check if Adam was following.

He wasn't even sure how it happened. One minute he was galloping brilliantly along like the outlaw in the book he was reading the next he was flying through the air and split the fence in two on his way down. He landed in a patch of mud, pain exploding to his right side as his left arm was trapped underneath him.

~o~

Now darkness was closing in and he was alone, cold and his arm would never be the same again. Tiny sobs broke the silence of this solitary place as Joe stood alone among the debris of the fence Adam had spent all day mending.

He suddenly felt the whole weight of his foolishness, riding out alone like that with night closing in. He'd be eaten by wolves or stolen by gypsies and made to preform in their show. Or even worse a Banshee would wail out a warning of Joes impending death. Joe knew that soon he would not be able to see his hand in front of his face. All would be pitch black and...

Joe stopped his morbid thoughts for a moment as his eyes strained to see. There was someone walking down the field.

Joe stumbled forward, wave after wave of relief washing over him as he recognised his oldest brother coming towards him.

"What have you done ye idiot." Adam asked. Joe was about to explain about the fence when Adam gently took hold of his arm to examine the damage.

"I came off the horse," Joe sniffed.

Adam hissed air between his teeth. "We'll have to get Doc Martin to look at that." He said.

He scooped Joe up then and began carrying him up the field towards his horse.

"Come on Joe, Hoss is making pancakes." He told him as he carried him up the hill.

THE END.


End file.
